


Never Say Never

by paragadesluster



Series: Pouch of Pebbles [2]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-11
Updated: 2015-05-11
Packaged: 2018-03-30 02:18:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3919156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paragadesluster/pseuds/paragadesluster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cassandra Pentaghast was not an animal person.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Say Never

Cassandra Pentaghast was not an animal person.

It had been this way all of her life. It wasn’t as if she hated animals; she was actually quite gifted with horses, it was the small ones - dogs and cats – that avoided her like the plague. She had never been bothered to figure out why she had had other interests to pursue. Her brother Antony on the other hand, was always bringing home strays to nurse back to health. Animals loved him and seemed to flock to him; Cassandra was jealous of him for it. As a child she dealt with this frustration the only way that she knew how, she trained. She ran laps around their house, she rearranged the stables and she did push-ups until she felt better. It was ingrained in her to take her frustration out on something else rather than have her emotions affect her work.

Such as was the case now. The mages had just arrived from Redcliff and Cassandra was tired of listening to them complain, why in Andraste’s name did they think that she was the one to solve all of their problems. That’s what the Fiona was for, not her.

It was because of this situation that Cass was hacking away at the practice dummies, if a bit more forcefully than usual. As she paused to drink from her flask she was surprised to feel an odd rubbing against her ankle. She glanced down affronted, wondering what the hell was touching her when she saw that it was a cat.

It was a pitiful looking thing, all skin and bones with dull gray and white fur that had patches missing here and there. The creature’s left ear was shredded and it looked up at her with bright blue eyes. Stepping back surprised that the cat had approached her she sheathed her sword as the cat drew closer to her again, rubbing against the toe of her boot and flopping onto its back, stretching.

Cassandra stared, and then slowly reached down to stroke the cat’s belly. The fur was soft considering how mangy and underfed the thing looked; Cassandra could feel the creature’s ribs as she stroked the now obviously male cat’s stomach. The cat’s belly vibrated with the strength of its purrs and Cassandra could feel a smile tugging at her lips as she scratched lightly. He soon grew tired of the attention and flipped back on his paws circling through her legs in a figure eight pattern mewing every few seconds and butting his head against her ankles. Cassandra stood with her hands on her hips looking around to see if anyone was setting her up to be the butt end of a practical joke.

The campgrounds were deserted. Cass looked back down; the cat was staring at her still circling her. She cautiously reached down and picked up the cat by the scruff of its neck keeping eye contact with the creature. Slowly, as if not to alarm her the cat reached out and placed his paw on her nose. They both waited on each other to make the first move. The cat stared at her with its kind blue eyes, Cass stared right back wondering if maybe she had finally gone crazy when the cat’s eyes started to go cross eyed. Cassandra broke smiling at the cat who then nuzzled into her wrist that held him. Cassandra brought the cat to her chest and headed towards the mess tent to grab a late dinner, still stroking the cats head.

Perhaps, she thought as she walked, not all animals hated her. The cat purred loudly and fell asleep in her arms.


End file.
